Bill’s Corner

William T. Gibbs

William was appointed the managing editor effective May 1, 2015. He joined the Coin World editorial staff in 1976 as an assistant editor for "Collectors' Clearinghouse" and later became a senior staff writer before being appointed news editor. As managing editor, he manages the day-to-day editorial operations for Coin World, both print and online, and leads the editorial staff. He also serves as chief copy editor for all Coin World publications, including for all books published by Coin World since 1985. He has been project editor of mulitple editions of the Coin World Almanac. Bill began collecting coins at the age of 10 and soon discovered Coin World. As a teen interested in numismatics and journalism, he identified a writing position on the staff of Coin World as a dream job, which was realized shortly after he graduated from Bowling Green State University with a major in journalism. He collects store cards and medals depicting Adm. George Dewey of Spanish-American War fame.

Legislation has unexpected consequences

President Obama’s signing into law a transportation bill with several numismatic provisions had some intended and unintended consequences — namely, a decision by Mint officials to not sell the planned 2015 Limited Edition Silver Proof set. (And please, don’t take the image too seriously; it’s meant to be funny.)

President Obama’s signing into law a transportation bill with several numismatic provisions had some intended and unintended consequences — namely, a decision by Mint officials to not sell the planned 2015 Limited Edition Silver Proof set. (And please, don’t take the image too seriously; it’s meant to be funny.)

​Call it bad timing, bad planning or
the law of unintended
consequences, or maybe a combination of all three factors. The Mint
has announced that it will not offer the previously announced 2015
Limited Edition Silver Proof set — not because the coins aren’t
available, and not because the packaging issues that led the Mint to
postpone its intended Nov. 23 release can’t be resolved, and not
because the Mint has reservations about issuing a 2015 set in 2016
(the 2014 set wasn’t released until 2015).

Mint officials instead made the decision to not
issue the 2015 Limited Edition Silver Proof set because of the
five-year $305 billion highway bill that President Obama signed
into law on Dec. 3.

Why would a transportation bill lead the Mint to
cancel what was becoming an annual set?

The 2015 Limited Edition Silver Proof set was to
have contained a Proof 2015-W American Eagle silver dollar and
2015-S examples of the Roosevelt dime, all five America the
Beautiful quarter dollars, and the Kennedy half dollar. All of the
coins were available and the Mint was attempting to solve
“packaging issues” for the set. The Mint could have resolved those
“issues” and then released the 2015 set sometime in 2016.

However, the transportation act that was signed
into law included several provisions related to the nation’s
coinage. Among them is a requirement that all Proof and
Uncirculated American Eagle silver dollars issued in 2016 must
have a special edge inscription recognizing the 30th anniversary
of the coin. The key word in the provision is “issued.” Mint
officials have interpreted this as meaning that even the existing
2015-W American Eagle silver dollars cannot be released in 2016
because they already are struck and have a reeded edge. It doesn’t
matter that the coins would be dated 2015 — they can’t be issued
in 2016 because they don’t meet the edge lettering requirements
outlined in the legislation.

Had the Mint not experienced “packaging issues”
that delayed the release of the set, it could have gone on sale
Nov. 23 and then been taken off sale on Dec. 30, possibly creating
a modern rarity for those fortunate to have purchased one or more.
However, with the passage of the transportation bill, this set
will apparently never be released.

Unintended consequences, indeed.

This entry was posted on Thu Dec 17 15:04:59 EST 2015. You can follow any responses to this entry through the Atom feed.